The platform released by the Democratic Party Sunday talks up President Joe Biden’s ‘economic vision’ – because it got voted through before he ended his run for reelection.
It was just the latest bizarre feature in an election that has already featured a debate collapse, an assassination attempt on Donald Trump, a high-powered pressure campaign, the stunning withdrawal of the candidate, and even the president losing a primary American Samoa.
‘We’re delivering on President Biden’s pledge to rebuild our economy from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down,’ it says.
It calls the election ‘a choice between two very different economic visions for America: Donald Trump, who sees the world from his country club at Mar-a-Lago; and Joe Biden, who sees it from kitchen tables in Scranton like the one he grew up around.’
Those were just a pair of the dozens of mentions of Biden, 81, who ended his campaign after a series of elected lawmakers and party officials urged him to end his run against Trump, 78.
‘In President Biden’s second term, he will continue selecting judges who will protect fundamental rights and who represent the diversity of the American experience. We will push for a Supreme Court that follows the rule of law, protects people’s freedoms, and abides by the highest ethical standards,’ says the platform in one section that is clearly out of date.
It’s Vice President Kamala Harris’ convention now, but the party platform repeatedly mentions President Joe Biden
It also mentions Donald Trump more than 100 times. It does mention Vice President Kamala Harris, who has unified the party around her after getting Biden’s endorsement. ‘President Biden, Vice President Harris, and Democrats are running to finish the job. It got approved by the party’s Platform Committee July 16 less than a week before Biden stepped back, in a stunning illustration of the pace of the turnaround.
Now, it will serve as a general governing blueprint for Harris, who has so far been dribbling out her own policy proposals and turning down interview requests.
That includes her campaign calling for a top corporate tax rate of 28 percent – in line with President Biden’s budget blueprint for the 2025 fiscal year.
Other economic proposals in the platform include a $15 federal minimum wage and a $10,000 tax credit for first time home buyers.
High up in the platform is a statement about the Chicago land where the convention is being held.
Biden will address the convention and leave town, but the platform that mentions him remains
‘While we meet in Chicago, we also recognize and honor the traditional homelands of the Anishinaabe, also known as the Council of the Three Fires: the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi Nations,’ it says. ‘We acknowledge the many other tribes who consider this area their traditional homeland, including the Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, Menominee, Sac and Fox, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Wea, Kickapoo, and Mascouten.’
‘Over the past two years, more than 20 states have imposed extreme and dangerous abortion bans – many of which include no exception even for rape or incest – that put the health and lives of women in jeopardy, force women to travel hundreds of miles for care, and threaten to criminalize doctors for providing the health care that their patients need and that they are trained to provide,’ goes a passage on abortion.
One paragraph hammers Trump on denying the results of the 2020 election carried by Biden. It’s something Harris has not been stressing at her rallies to the extent Biden has.
‘Trump refuses to defend core tenets of our democracy: the Constitution, the rule of law, our system of checks and balances. He still doesn’t accept the plain truth, upheld by scores of courts, that he lost in 2020, even describing himself as a “very proud election denier” – and he has never agreed to accept this year’s results. After years undermining public faith and confidence in our elections, he has warned of a “bloodbath” if he loses now,’ says the platform.
‘He lionizes the convicted criminals who perpetrated the January 6 attack on our Capitol and brave police, calling those insurrectionists “patriots” and “hostages” while promising to pardon them.’
